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minutes 02-09-00Page 10 of 41
<br />HERKES: Everybody, except me, changed their ideas.
<br />OTTERSON: No, I know you’re for it.
<br />BESS: That’s not true.
<br />OTTERSON: But everybody else is against it.
<br />MARTIN: That’s not quite true.
<br />RAY: Wait. We have come forth with a proposal to keep the Managing Director, but to change the duties and rearrange the
<br />Executive Department within the County Charter, and that’s what we’re going to be proposing on a preliminary basis. We’re
<br />not going to be proposing a Council Manager form of government.
<br />OTTERSON: I notice here that you have Department Head Qualifications. That would be up to a manager, in my ideas, and,
<br />like it would be in Riverside, that would be up to the City Manager to determine the qualifications of the different managers,
<br />like your Planning Department, Police Department, Fire Department, and all of those areas. And so that would solve one of
<br />your questions you have on here. He would also be the Manager of the Police Chief and also the Fire Chief. He would take
<br />care of both of those departments, well, in fact, every department in your City, or County, or whatever. You could get rid of a
<br />lot of this stuff here by just going to a manager type government. Like your Planning Department, that, in my estimation, is
<br />way down below, and it should be one of your most important departments in the City or County because they are the ones
<br />that your children, or whatever, are going to have to work with on down the line, but here it’s so much different that they’re
<br />planning not ahead, but planning backwards, and I know that for a fact because all you have to do is drive around and see
<br />some of the jobs that are being done. So that would definitely need to be a licensed engineer in that position. I’m not going to
<br />say too much tonight but I would really like to have you really think about this because it’s a very, very important issue, and
<br />you’ve got another ten years before you can really change it. And I think the way you’ve got this set up, that your manager
<br />type that you are talking about, the Mayor would still be the boss. Is this right?
<br />RAY: That’s right.
<br />OTTERSON: So you’re not ahead anywhere. You still got the turnover of the type of people that walk down the street
<br />everyday, and I’m sure, if you had a multi-million dollar business, as I’ve said before, you wouldn’t pick somebody off of the
<br />street to run it, and that’s exactly what it is now. Would you like to say anything, Bob? I just would like to have you really
<br />think about this because it’s going to be another ten years you’re going to have to live with this.
<br />BARRY: Thank you. I only wanted to bring out something that’s already been talked about, and that is a City Manager. The
<br />town I grew up in in Southern Oregon, a town of about 30,000, about 25 years ago went to a City Manager type of
<br />government, and my cousins, my aunts, uncles and everybody who still lives there, say it’s the best thing that ever happened
<br />to that city. In addition to that, at the same time, or about the same time, they went to a Department of Public Safety, and they
<br />took the Fire Department and the Police Department, and put it under one head, and both the Chief of Police and Fire Chief
<br />reported to this one head, who reported to the City Manager. And it worked very well, according to my relatives. I did not
<br />live there at the time. I had already gone into the Navy and college and everything else, but my relatives tell me it’s the best
<br />thing that ever happened to our little town in Southern Oregon.
<br />RAY: Thank you.
<br />HERKES: What’s the name of your town?
<br />BARRY: Grants Pass.
<br />HERKES: It is a little town in Southern Oregon.
<br />OTTERSON: Another thing here I noticed, too, is you have a Wage Commission.
<br />HERKES: Salary Commission.
<br />OTTERSON: Salary Commission. This would be under the manager type too. He would take care of all of that. His
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